Donna Webster and her family organized a fundraiser for husband Kenneth Webster, who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Barrington business Acanthus will sell Kenneth Webster's artwork and paintings he made as a hobby. Proceeds support the Webster's medical expenses.

Donna Webster and her family organized a fundraiser for husband Kenneth Webster, who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Barrington business Acanthus will sell Kenneth Webster's artwork and paintings he made as a hobby. Proceeds support the Webster's medical expenses. (Todd Shields / Pioneer Press)

An insurance worker for 40 years with New York Life usually wouldn't be thought of as an accomplished artist and painter.

But Algonquin resident Kenneth Webster, 73, has helped defy that perception by creating different paintings and participating in art shows during his free time throughout the past four decades.

Now, his family is hoping he could defy the more serious matter of a brain cancer diagnosis and is working with a Barrington business to help raise community support for Webster's treatment by putting his hobby on display.

"He has all this beautiful art," said Webster's son, Kenneth Webster, Jr.

Faced with increasing medical expenses and expired insurance coverage for Kenneth Webster's nursing home care, the Webster family connected with Debora Watson, who owns the interior design studio Acanthus in Barrington.

Watson previously knew Kenneth Webster and also worked with his wife, Donna Webster. The business owner brainstormed ideas with the family on how to raise funds to support Kenneth Webster's medical costs.

They decided on an art sale, offering Kenneth Webster's paintings for purchase. Proceeds go to the family, who would use the funds to continue nursing care for Kenneth Webster at Rosewood Care Center in Elgin, both Watson and the family said.

Between 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. each day from Dec. 3 through Dec. 11, Acanthus will display about 40 of Webster's framed art pieces for sale at the Barrington business, 442 W. Northwest Highway.

"Ken's art can fit beautifully into so many homes," Watson said. "All funds from this showing and sale will go directly to defray costs of his nursing care."

Before the brain cancer diagnosis in July, Kenneth Webster was working toward retiring from New York Life in 2017.

Plans changed after doctors diagnosed him with high-grade glioblastoma, the most aggressive and malignant form of primary brain cancer, said Dr. Dennis Wen, a neurosurgeon at Presence Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin who treats Webster.